How the One Health approach can make effective the World Health Organization's recommendations on integrated management of childhood illnesses: Case of community-based home management of malaria in the Ferlo of Matam, Senegal.

BACKGROUND

Malaria remains a major cause of illness and death among children under five in Senegal, particularly in remote areas inhabited by transhumant herders who have limited access to health services. To address these gaps, the National Malaria Control Program implemented a community-based home management (CBHM) strategy in the Ferlo region of Matam, integrating One Health principles to engage animal and environmental health actors.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was carried out describing the said CBHM-Ferlo strategy. Data were collected by document review and activity report exploitation on the DHIS2 platform. It focused on the IMCI target group (children under five) living in a mobile (transhumance) mode. The community-based home care providers (CBHCPs) were selected within and by their own transhumant herder's community to early detect and care of childhood illness (diarrhea, respiratory infection, malaria, etc.) on the one hand; and to reinforce vitamin A supplementation, deworming and immunization coverage on the other hand.

RESULTS

The strategy's principle was "Making the home, the first 'hospital' of communities" with a total of 2307 cases seen by CBHCPs including 1464 cases of fever. The malaria testing rate of 98.9 % with a positivity rate of 21.1 %, 96.4 % of which were on artemisinin-based combination therapies. Regarding diarrhea, 209 cases were detected with 67.9 % of treatment rate based on oral rehydration solution and zinc. In terms of respiratory infections, cough/cold occurred in 96.5 % of cases, and pneumonia cases were treated 55.6 % of cases with amoxicillin. Finally, 1156 children were supplemented with vitamin A, while 443 children were dewormed, and 129 children were raised awareness and referred for immunization.

CONCLUSION

Thus, CBHM-Ferlo strategy improved the care of childhood illness in Matam in 2024, and above all highlights the added value of One Health and transdisciplinary approaches.